Chennai Public Health Department has raised major concerns after learning that 1/3rd of patients with fever referred to government hospitals in the last couple of days came back with kidney and lung failure. 

A late night audit conducted on October 22 by the Public Health Department, Chennai brought to light several cases of wrong diagnosis and wrong prescriptions for patients who became critically ill after seeking treatment for common fever. Most of the prescriptions showed analgesics and steroids or overload of fluids and platelets prescribed for quick recovery. Dr. AT Arasar Seeralar, Director of the Institute of Child Health pointed out that prescribing steroids to patients with possible dengue could result in kidney failure and cause their platelets to drop and rushing fluids can result in lung failure. 

Dr. Kolandaisamy, Director of Public Health expressed shock over the wrong prescriptions written by doctors, some of who were even specialists. The Health Department has now circulated the prescriptions along with a six-page advisory on management of fever to various doctor bodies such as Indian Medical Association and Association of Physicians of India, urging the bodies to conduct refresher courses for doctors.

Information for the article was sourced from Times of India. Find the original article by clicking here.